WandaVision episode 7: Agatha Harkness and what came next

WandaVision's seventh episode settled one of the show's central questions: Agnes was Agatha Harkness from the comics, and she was behind everything. I called it a fabulous episode, with an amazing origin sequence for Monica Rambeau, a few letdowns, and an ending line I rank among the best I've heard for an episode.

The Disney+ series (2021), starring Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany and Kathryn Hahn, had two episodes left when I wrote this. The finale aired on March 5, 2021. What follows is what I saw in the episode and what I expected at the time.

What I predicted for the last two WandaVision episodes

By this point a whole industry of fake WandaVision spoilers and theories for the sake of theories had popped up. One rumor that went around claimed the last three episodes would be an hour long, crediting Kevin Feige. I was nervous about how out of control it was getting, but I knew my information was legit and that my theories were grounded in the actual evidence, so I held my ground.

My prediction was that the next episode would be a flashback, where we'd learn Agatha's origin story. I thought she was going to start monologuing, and that we'd learn how Wanda got Vision's body from SWORD and how all of this got started. After that, I expected the finale to feature the big battle I had heard about from my sources, with Wanda and Agatha going against each other.

I also did the math on runtime. Seven episodes in, we were only at about three and a half hours of storytelling, and Marvel had said this was a six hour story. That meant the final two episodes should be about an hour and a half each, or we'd get something like a movie for the finale, which I wouldn't have complained about. To be fair, they might also cram a lot in and do a half hour.

The sitcom era looked finished with Modern Family and Happy Endings

Between the sitcom posters and the sitcom material we'd seen in the trailers, I thought the show was probably done with sitcoms after this episode. It went out on Modern Family. They skimped on the Modern Family elements, but what they did was quite good, and there was maybe a bit of The Office in the talking to camera.

The opening credits were an homage to Happy Endings, a show I had never watched or even heard of until it was pointed out to me. I wasn't sure why they used it, since it was never particularly successful. I checked whether showrunner Jac Schaeffer got her start there, but she never worked on it. Maybe they chose it because the title is ironic: nobody is getting a happy ending here.

Reed Richards and multiverse X-Men theories bit the dust

Some big fan theories didn't pan out. There was no Reed Richards. I had heard he would most likely show up on Disney+ first, but I thought this was too soon. I didn't think they had even chosen a director for a Fantastic Four movie when they were filming or writing this. My suspicion was that he'd show up in maybe Secret Invasion, since he was a big part of that comic book event, though there were a lot of upcoming shows where he could appear.

It also looked like multiverse X-Men weren't going to work out, although I was curious how they would justify Agatha making whoever this was look like the Fox version of Quicksilver. Still, there was a clever reference to the multiverse in the episode's commercial, and the reveals balanced out the letdowns.

Agatha Harkness, Ralph the rabbit and Evan Peters as Nicholas Scratch

Agnes turned out to be Agatha Harkness, right down to the purple coloring, from her clothes to her magic. The hexagons are hers too, which I didn't catch until I rewatched. Evan Peters was either working with her or for her; she didn't need to be working for him.

My guess was that Ralph is the rabbit, Senor Scratchy. I thought Agatha turned her husband into a rabbit, and he could be her husband slash familiar. I also thought, as others had guessed, that Evan Peters was Agatha's son Nicholas Scratch, which would make the bunny Ralph Scratch. Ralph doesn't seem like a name from the days of Salem, so I wondered what his original name was.

I also wondered whether Evan Peters was Nightmare, working together with Agatha. I hoped so, because otherwise it seemed like a waste of Evan Peters if he was only a henchman. It would be a huge misdirect, and I thought some X-Men fans would be quite angry. I was relieved, though, because I want fresh X-Men. Later I floated another possibility: maybe he wasn't even a real entity, only something Agatha created.

Elizabeth Olsen's Modern Family testimonials and the Good Morning America clip

I liked the intro, which juxtaposed Modern Family style music with a horrific scene of people screaming and running for their lives, over Wanda's testimonial. I thought it was a funny thing to do. Elizabeth Olsen is an incredible actress, able to channel all of these sitcoms so well. I think she might get a nomination, and I thought there was a very strong chance, though I felt Hollywood's attitude toward the comic book genre might hurt her recognition.

That opening was the clip that aired on Good Morning America. I didn't know why Disney felt the show needed promoting, so I wondered about its viewership. When it came out, anchor Michael Strahan said someone had a crazy night, and he clearly had never watched the show. I couldn't believe no producer set up the clip for him.

I also noticed one pillow doesn't match the rest of the sheets, so maybe the house was already glitching. That's why the boys ran up: their games were glitching, changing into different types of games. The show has a lot of visual effects shots, and I felt they paid for them with product placement, which was particularly obvious here, from Uno to Maxwell House and Florida's Natural.

Billy's psychic powers and Wanda's day off

Wanda wasn't the best of parents. When her son said his head hurt, she told him to go play. That's never a good sign. It's obviously his psychic powers, which are something she doesn't have. Some people pointed out Billy has sometimes had that in the comics; I didn't recall it, but that would make him potentially even more powerful than Wanda. His ability to hear thoughts mattered later in the episode.

The milk kept changing to different time periods, even black and white, and the carton had a missing children notice. Missing children have been a big theme, and witches have complicated relationships with children. I wondered if Agatha didn't want the twins around until Vision brought it up. The cereal box had a circus maze, maybe a nod to Vision trying to reach them. The kitchen looked like the Modern Family kitchen, which I credit to the set designers.

The opening credits were mostly Wanda, with Vision arriving at the very end. I think Wanda feels very much alone in this episode; she even says that if Vision doesn't want to be there, what can she do about it. I wasn't sure why the 10 had a heart around it, maybe an original air date the pandemic threw off. The credits say created by Wanda Maximoff, but we now know that was a lie, or at least it was produced by Agatha Harkness.

A science villain and a magic villain, with Darcy at the carnival

Hayward took a back seat, but I considered my theory confirmed: a science villain and a magic villain for a science hero and a magic hero. Someone put it nicely as Wanda and Vision being a marriage of magic and science. The hex had gotten very large, and I guessed we'd see what Hayward would do to try to get his property back, though Vision couldn't leave.

SWORD didn't seem to care much about Darcy, so thank goodness Monica and Jimmy did. Vision woke up and saw the strongman who first signed Darcy in when she arrived at the camp, and she got to punch him in the face. She's an escape artist, last seen handcuffed to a van and now chained to a car, and I wondered if she'd help figure out how to get out. The poster sweater turned out to be a carnival costume, so the show wasn't quite as zany as some theorized.

Vision and Wanda both acknowledged the man calling himself Pietro isn't Pietro, which settled a big point of contention. As I had said, he isn't, and that was confirmed.

Agnes in purple, the twins and the house glitching

Wanda wasn't hiding her magic anymore, opening the door for Agnes with it. Agnes didn't have her brooch on, which I noticed immediately, though she put it back on by the end. She was dressed in purple, matching her magic and the colors of Agatha Harkness in the comics. Her outfits match the time period she's in, but purple is a strong choice.

She wanted the twins. In the comics they're made up of shards of Mephisto's soul, and Evan Peters had called them demon spawn. I assumed Agatha wanted them for nefarious reasons beyond babysitting. When she said she did bite a child once, it played into my theory that she doesn't like children, as most witches do not.

Wanda's day off fell apart as everything glitched and she felt she was losing control in every sense. The wallpaper rolling up was a creepy choice. Then in her testimonial the voice behind the camera asked, "do you think maybe this is what you deserve," and it was revealed to be Agatha, even though it was a male voice.

The SWORD meeting and the Cataract emails

Jimmy got Darcy's emails, revealing Cataract, which someone pointed out is a play on vision. It's Hayward's plan to bring Vision back online. Some felt it could lead to Sentinels; I thought we were far away from the X-Men, but the show references things so far back in the MCU that it could be laying groundwork, and I thought that was a good theory.

When Monica and Jimmy turned the corner, my heart sank. I'd hoped for the Pym van, but it was a military group. The actress was the face of a huge disappointment through no fault of her own. She brought a truck that looked a bit like it was based on Pym technology, apparently designed by Monica, an armed space rover marked no step on the front.

The Nexus commercial and the multiverse

The commercial was for depression, which is part of what started all this, and the product was called Nexus. I thought it was a brilliant choice, because Nexus has two meanings in the MCU. One is the Nexus of All Realities, a cross dimensional gateway to the multiverse, referenced by Stellan Skarsgård's character in Thor: The Dark World, the film Darcy comes from.

The other is the Nexus internet hub from Avengers: Age of Ultron. Tony Stark broke into its headquarters to find out who was helping them stop Ultron from getting the nuclear codes, and found it was Jarvis, who had erased his memory and scattered himself across the internet. Vision has lost his memory here too.

The ad promised to bring you back to reality, or the reality of your choice, because the world doesn't revolve around you, or does it. I wondered if this was how Wanda beats or escapes Agatha, by ripping open the multiverse.

Monica Rambeau's origin sequence

At first I thought Monica's origin was rushed, but it turned out to be fantastic, and Randall Park did a phenomenal job as Jimmy Woo after I'd been tough on his acting. As others pointed out, it's very Fantastic Four: radiation, DNA rewritten, space suits, even a costume mirroring the Future Foundation era. The truck was rewritten and thrown out half changed, which looked fantastic.

When she ran in with no protection, I felt she has a bit of a death wish, or not a death wish but that she doesn't care anymore. It's sad, but powerful character development. As she was fragmented, we heard her younger self from Captain Marvel, Nick Fury saying "only if you learn to glow," and Carol Danvers saying "your mom really lucked out when they were handing out kids because she got the toughest one."

That's when Monica pulled herself together and got her powers, so I don't see them as an accident. Her eyes glowed blue, and I think she could see wavelengths. Her mother's call sign was Photon, one of Monica's comic names along with Spectrum and Captain Marvel. I found it interesting her eyes weren't permanently blue, which might have made her too much like Storm. Under her spacesuit was a SWORD uniform in her comic colors.

Vision learns what Wanda went through

Darcy filled Vision in on Jarvis and Ultron, and he realized Wanda saw him die twice, once by her hand. When a barrier stopped them, he thought it was Wanda, but it was Agatha. I didn't know why they let it stop them; I'd at least try driving around it. I think Vision knows he can't leave because he's not alive outside. Darcy told him the love between him and Wanda is real, and he answered that they could write that on his tombstone.

When Monica burst into Wanda's home, Wanda lost her temper and threw her out. I like Wanda in the gray zone between hero and villain. Monica protected herself with a superhero landing, then told Wanda she wasn't the villain, and Wanda answered maybe she is. Agnes stepped in and took Wanda away. Vision eventually flew off, leaving Darcy behind.

Agatha's basement and Agatha All Along

At Agatha's house Wanda saw a half eaten meal, a cartoon playing, Senor Scratchy, and a bug whose colors match Agatha's costume, maybe a bee link to the hexagons. Agatha sent her to the basement, a very Stranger Things tunnel leading to a room I bet is hexagon shaped, with demonic symbols, a curio cabinet and a book with demonic energy. I wondered if the book was a portal to Mephisto or the Nexus.

Agatha introduced herself, eyes glowing purple, seeming to put Wanda under control. Then came a Munsters style credits sequence and a tease of her look, layered and different from other Marvel costumes, with black in her magic. The theme song showed she caused it all, including Pietro. The ending line, that she's the one who killed Sparky, is one of the best end lines ever. It opened the door to the Scarlet Witch name, and maybe to Salem witches as early superheroes, through Thor's idea that magic is science we don't understand yet.

Monica's trap in the end credits scene

In the end credits scene, Monica found Agatha's house, though I didn't know how. The basement door was open, and it was a trap. Purple energy poured out, and I think opening it hypnotizes you. Evan Peters appeared and said "snooper's gonna snoop," and I hoped we'd learn what was going on with him. Monica turned with purple eyes, under Agatha's control, or Agatha and Nightmare's. It was a phenomenal episode.